The King's Town Players Announce the 2017-2018 Season

LES BELLES-SOEURS

Written by Michel TremblayTranslated by Bill Glasco and John Van BurekDirected by Sean Roberts

Germaine Lauzon is the lucky winner of one million green stamps. Watch what happens when fourteen of Germaine’s friends, neighbours, and family members join her in her small kitchen in working-class Montreal to help celebrate her good fortune. This landmark of Canadian theatre has been performed the world over: both humorous and moving.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Written and Directed by Richard LinleyBased on the story by Charles Dickens

The Industrial Revolution has brought riches to some in London, but left much of the population destitute. Ebenezer Scrooge is among the fortunate few, but he has allowed his pursuit of wealth to eclipse all thoughts of tenderness for the rest of humanity. Scrooge does not discriminate: He hates everyone equally, and sees Christmas (“Humbug!”) as an excuse for his poor Clerk, Bob Cratchet, to do him out of a day’s earnings once a year for no work done. Then, on Christmas Eve in 1843, Scrooge is paid a visit by the ghost his long-dead partner, Jacob Marley. Marley is determined to save the terrified Scrooge from himself, and sets about doing so with the help of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet To Come. Sure to delight young and old alike!

SUPERIOR DONUTS

Written by Tracy LettsDirected by Mae Whalen

Arthur Przybyszewski is the proprietor of Superior Donuts, a donut store in present day Chicago. Neither he nor his business is aging well, being made redundant by gentrification and a plethora of Starbucks popping up around his neighbor. A small, loyal clientele keeps him barely afloat, but it is painfully obviously both Arthur and his store are fading into ignominy. Enter Franco Wicks, a young African-American man who brings with him youthful energy, a refreshing worldview, and his masterpiece, the great American novel. Through poignant, funny dialogue Arthur and Franco form a friendship that transcends age and race, transforming the lives of these two men. Yet Franco has a dark past, and as it begins to catch up to him Arthur is thrust into making decisions that will shape his livelihood, and the lives of him and Franco against the canvas of a changing Chicago.

BLOOD RELATIONS

Written by Sharon PollockDirected by Dylan Chenier

“Lizzie Borden took an axe...” begins the classic schoolyard rhyme that sets the stage for Sharon Pollock’s award-winning historical drama.

In 1892, Andrew and Abigail Borden were brutally murdered in their Fall River home. Their daughter Lizzie, though acquitted in court, was the only suspect ever charged. Debate as to her guilt continues to this day. Instead of a whodunit, Pollock has crafted a ‘whydunit’, examining life in the Borden household and in the world around it, to discover what might drive a spinster daughter to send her parents into the great beyond in such a memorable fashion. Most provocatively the play asks ‘Would you do it?’

THE TEMPEST

Written by William ShakespeareDirected by Steven Spencer

On a distant island a man waits.

Robbed of his position, power and wealth, his enemies have left him in isolation. But this is no ordinary man, and this no ordinary island. Prospero is a magician, able to control the very elements and bend nature to his will. When a sail appears on the horizon, he reaches out across the ocean to the ship that carries the men who wronged him. Creating a vast magical storm he wrecks the ship and washes his enemies up on the shore. When they wake they find themselves lost on a fantastical island where nothing is as it seems.